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Very happy to have the incisive and forcefully anti-capitalist presence of George Ciccariello-Maher – scholar, activist, writer, Marxist – on AEWCH this week.

We break down what dialectics are, if you’re unfamiliar. Then we talk about the Cuban revolution, why liberal centrists are a total failure, how we can’t expect to resolve every contradiction, why Marxism needs anti-imperialism, how inner struggle translates into action, how a skewed focus on our wounds can stop us from doing what needs to be done in the world, why solidarity requires struggle, Hegel vs the individual (AKA Geo vs Conner), whether or not everything is political, the value of Stormy Daniels, how struggle exists outside of capitalism, and what we can actually DO with all this theory.

BONUS!

I’ve posted an extra audio-only thank you episode for all my listeners and patrons.

I talk about how the podcast came to be (it was half Abby Martin and half tarot reading, believing it or not), why porn performers make almost no money, and what’s to come with both AEWCH and my patreon!

AGAINST EVERYONE is fully funded by Patreon. Please support the show and contribute to my mission to bring deep but accessible conversations to the world, and you’ll also get great stuff. Signing up is easy, and contributions start at as little as a dollar per month.

One of my favorite musicians, Ben Chasny (AKA Six Organs of Admittance) joins me on AEWCH to discuss the occult properties and relationships of tones, chords, and intervals. We don’t just discuss them, Ben plays them, and we see what happens; in particular we use Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on music (starting at 32:00) and the evolution of consciousness to lead us. Also, on the four occult bodies, feeling the music versus allowing music to grow out of itself, why we need to listen to and through the entire body, Billy Idol and Francoise Hardy, Deleuze and repetition in songs, Ben’s Hexadic system for composing, and why music makes us feel the way it makes us feel.

There are four (yes, four!) musical performances on this episode. Here are the songs and when they happen:

This is one of my very favorite conversations – I can’t believe I had the opportunity to speak with MacArthur fellow Kelly Link and brilliant new novelist Jordy Rosenberg! We had the conversation just a few days before Link’s MacArthur Award was announced, and just a few days after Jordy’s book was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Award!

How fantastic elements in fiction can fall into reinforcing political power; how capitalism works like magic; how we turn social forces into entities; when characters becomes concepts and vice versa; autotheory; scent, senses, and pleasure in fiction; Mandy and zombies; murder; disassociation as a strategy; the evolution of consciousness through novels; and a whooooole lot of literature.

I invited the greatAlex Vitale– author, activist, professor, and police consultant – to the show. Alex’s bookThe End of Policing is an extraordinary book about undoing the role of police in society. Not just a critique, but a guide for how to get there. The awakening to police brutality, police militarization, and police racism in the US has opened up new pathways of how communities can work and what the role of justice and punishment might mean. Alex and I cover it all, and he’s really, really great on just about everything we discussed. Way better than me at first, because I ramble a bit in the face of the expert. But that’s okay! I get back on my feet and we have an amazing conversation.

As always, show notes featuring further readings, links to resources, and quotes are available for patrons. Please do support the show!

Friends, one of the reasons why I love this episode of Against Everyone with Conner Habib is pretty simple: I love talking with comedian and author Moshe Kasher. He’s one of those rare wide-ranging thinkers who is also warm, and very funny.

Moshe and I talk about doing drugs, what it’s like to belong nowhere, why comedians are not philosophers, growing up poor, how I defiled waffles as a teenager, why Call Me By Your Name is a horrible movie, Moshe getting off with gay dudes on the phone, how MeToo is partially a reflexive backlash to trans rights, and gurus.

You can get the show notes for the and every ep with links to further reading, films, images, and quotes by signing up for as little as a dollar per month.

You, like me, may be worn out by identity, identity, identity. There is an identity industry around us. And yet, we also feel and know that out racial, sexual, gender, class, (and on and on) identities play a part in shaping our experiences. But how? And what sort of attention should we pay them? Luckily, Asad Haider, author of Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump and founder of Viewpoint Magazine, is here to help!

Asad and I had a great conversation in his book-filled office at University of Santa Cruz. There’s a little weirdness with the audio on my end, but it’s still pretty much okay. Just turn the bass down and the treble up a bit. You’ll still love it.

The show notes, with links to Bollywood films, Lacan enduring the situationist heckling, essays I wrote about growing up in small town PA and more are all here.